Ironing board cover



Nov. 7, 1939. c. RUTTENBERG 2,179.458

IRONING BOARD COVER Filed Feb. 21, 1938 reamed Nov. 1, 1939 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE IBONING BOARD COVER of Pennsylvania ApplicationFebruary 21, 1938, Serial No. 191,679

4 Claims.

My present invention relates to a new and useful cover for ironingboards.

Ironing board covers of muslin or other textile materials have been inuse for a long time and have had the general disadvantage that it is.

diflicult to apply them to an ironing board sufflciently smoothly toavoid forming wrinkles in and launching of the material. As a. result,the working space on said boards is undesirably restricted and theironing of garments or other clothing on such covers almost unavoidablyproduces creases, folds and non-smooth portions in the ironed articles.This condition is more or less inherent from the construction of thecovers heretofore used. The commonest type of cover consists of a lengthof muslin or other suitable fabric around the edge of which a hem isformed. Within the hem an elastic is inserted which has a contractedlength materially less than the peripheral length of the cover. Thus itis necessary to stretch the elastic substantially to its limit ofelongation in order to apply the cover, but in applying this type ofcover to an ironing board it is difllcult to distribute the material ofthe cover evenly and the elastic rapidly becomes fatigued, thus givingrise to the above noted and other disadvantages. It is also necessary tocut a hole in the hem in order to insert one end of the elastic and thenit is necessary to sew the ends of the elastic to the cover and to sewup the aforesaid hole. While these covers are comparatively inexpensiveand have enjoyed wide use, their disadvantages nevertheless have beenrecognized. In making such a cover it is also necessary to start with apiece of fabric which is of excess width in order to allow for the hem.This means that nonstandard widths of material must be purchased whichincreases the cost unnecessarily.

One of the objects of my present invention is to produce an ironingboard cover which obviates the difficulties and disadvantages of knowncovers both from the standpoint of their construction and their cost.

Another object is to make an ironing board cover in such manner that astandard width of material can be purchased and wherein no hem is formedand hence none of the operations required which depend upon the use ofsuch a hem.

Another object of the invention resides in producing a blank ofmaterial, such as muslin or other suitable fabric, and then attachingperipherally to the edge of such blank a stretchable rubber or elasticmember by means of a simple overstitch or overseam while the stretchablemember is under tension.

Another object resides in the production of an ironing boardcover whichis simple and easy to make and to apply and which, when applied,requires a minimum of adjustment, since the cover automaticallyaccommodates itself to the ironing board and automatically distributesthe material of the cover uniformly over the board, thus avoidingbunching, gathers and other irregularities in the material which wouldinterfere with proper ironing operations.

Other and further objects and advantages will be understood by thoseskilled in this art or will be apparent or pointed out hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein I have illustrated an ironing boardcover and the various stages in the manufacture thereof in accordancewith the present invention and wherein like numeralsdesignatecorresponding parts.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a starting blank of muslin or other suitablematerial;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a pocket-forming member which is adapted to beattached to the blank of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing the pocket-forming memberattached to the blank;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the commencementof the attaching operation wherein the stretchable member isperipherally sewed to the blank while thememher is maintained undertension and illustrating also the trimming of the blank to ultimate sizejust prior to the sewing operation; .12:

Flg. 5 is a perspective view of a completed ironing board cover inaccordance with the present invention;

Fig. 5a is a reduced section of my new ironing board cover taken on lineVar-Va of Fig. 5;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a clamping member which is utilized tosecure the ends of the stretchable member together; I i

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a portion of thefinished cover just prior to attaching the clamp of Fig. 6 in place; and1 Fig. 7a is a modification of Fig. 7 showinflthe ends of thestretchable member in overlapping relation.

Referring to the drawing, the blank ill of Fig. 1 represents a piece ofmuslin or other suitable material which is used as the starting piecefor the production of ironing board covers in accordance with thepresent invention. It will be noted that this blank has a wide end H anda narrow end l2 and that the wide end is squared but provided withbeveled connecting corners l3, whereas the narrow end is rounded.

The first step in the production of the cover of Fig. 5 after theproduction of the blank I. is to sew the pocket-forming piece ll of Fig.2 to the narrow rounded end of the blank of Fig. 1, as shown in Fig. 3.The piece of Fig. 2 has a rounded side l5 which registers with therounded end l2 of the blank l0 and the other side I. of the piece I4 isplanar and the pieces I and II are united by the stitching indicated atI! in Fig. 3 which may be an overstitch or stitching of any othersuitable character. I wish to note at this point, however, that the useof the pocket-forming piece I4 is optional as I may form a cover eitherwith or without this piece depending upon the type of cover required inany given usage.

The blank III, with or without the pocket forming piece I4, is nowsubjected to the following operations: The edge of the blank I0 istrimmed, the removed strip being formed being shown at 18, as the blankmay frequently be somewhat uneven, and at substantially the same time astretchable member i9 is fed under tension along the edge of the blankand is sewed while in such tensioned condition to the peripheral edge ofthe blank by an overstitch or overseam 20.

These operations are commenced at the center of the edge of the wide endll of the blank ill of Fig. 1, as will be clearly apparent from Fig. 4,and the material is turned and manipulated for hand sewing or inassociation with -a suitable sewing machine so as to apply thestretchable member while tensioned to the entire edge of the blank. Asthe sewing occurs and after tension is released in member l8, gathersautomatically form due to the contractionof the stretchable member butthe stitching is not only spaced relatively widely apart, as shown,

.but the attachment is absolutely uniform from beginning to end so thatthe gathers formed after the tension is relieved on the stretchablemember beyond the sewing operation are also uniform and any given lengthof the muslin and stretchable member contain exactly the same amount ofmaterial. Thus at the outset those conditions are avoided which wouldresult in unequal distribution of material and in unequal gathering ofsuch material. As indicated, these operations are continued around theentire periphery of the blank until the starting point is reached atwhich time the operations are stopped and the stretchable member cutfrom the feed thereof.

This produces, as shown in Fig. 7, two ends I9 upon which for a shortdistance there are no stitches and in order to complete the ironingboard cover the clamp 2| of Fig. 6 is placed over these ends and thensqueezed together and pressed down to secure and lock the ends firmly inaligned condition. The clamp 2| consists of a short length ofsemi-circular metal which has serrated edges 22 and which has aplurality of triangular metal tabs 23 which are forced down during theclamping operation into the material while at the same time the serratededges are squeezed toward each other and bent inwardly and upwardly,thereby securely locking the ends of the elastic together and at thesame time securing the same to the adjacent edge of the blank.

These operations produce an ironing board cover which has the generalappearance shown in Fig. 5 and which comprises body portion 24,

pocket portion 28, stretchable member I!) and the stitching referred to.This cover as formed is turned inside out and is applied to a board byinserting the narrow end of the ironing board into the pocket 25, wheresuch a pocket is used, and then the cover is grasped along the sides andstretched moderately while drawing the hands backwardly over thematerial until the clamp end of the cover is drawn over the wide end ofthe ironing board. These operations produce in the first instance acover which is applied smoothly and little or no additional smoothingand adjusting operations need be resorted to such as must be carried outin connection with applying known covers.

Due to the fact that the stitching is peripheral with respect to thematerial of the cover and due to the fact hat the stitches are spacedcomparatively widely apart, i. e., of the order of 1 to V. of an inch,as compared with ordinary close substantially abutting stitches, thematerial of the finished cover not only automatically distributes itselfevenly and uniformly when the cover is applied to an ironing board but aslight relative slippage or creeping of the stretchable member relativeto the stitching is possible so as to insure uniform smooth applicationof the cover to the board, even when such boards vary somewhat in sizeor shape. That is to say, my present ironing board cover accommodatesitself smoothly and automatically to ironing boards of different sizesand configurations with practically no subsequent adjusting or smoothingby hand being required.

It will be understood from the drawing in particular that thestretchable member I9 is not itself stitched but is held to theperiphery of blank it within the overstitching or overseam formed by thesewing operations. This is the reason that member I! can move relativelyto the stitching or cover as above described even though that stitchingis quite tight, i. e., exerts transverse compressive forces upon memberI9. I may, however, and prefer to maintain member I! in position alongthe periphery of blank In by stitching which at the same time has aslight gathering eflect. By this I mean that the member I! need only berelatively lightly tensioned as it is fed to the blank and that thestitching 20 has a slight contractive effect upon the tensioned memberis so that when sewed in position it is shorter by a small proportionthan in the feeding condition. After the sewing operation the member I!contracts the remaining amount which it is capable of under theseconditions and forms uniformly distributed gathers in the cover thusforming an exceptionally desirable cover which need not be fullystretched during application to ironing boards.

The above is intended as'illustrative rather than limitative and I maymake such modifications, alterations, substitutions or additions withinthe principle and scope of the invention as may be necessary ordesirable to produce covers of diflerent sizes, qualities,characteristics, etc., depending upon the type desired or the use towhich the cover is to be put. While I have shown the use of a pocket onthe cover, this may be omitted as above indicated without departing fromthe invention. While I have shown the ends of the stretchable member inaligned relationship, these may be overlapped as shown at Ha of Fig. 7a.andclamped in the same way as above described 'orby the use of aslightly larger clamp. My. invention is, however, not to be understoodas being limited to the use of any particular type of clamp nor need theends of the stretchable member be entirely within the clamp.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. An ironing board cover comprising a troughshaped textile bodyportion, a substantially circular stretchable member positioned underpartial tension in contact with the peripheral edge of said textile bodyportion but unattached thereto, and spaced gathering overstitchingpassing through the said body portion adjacent the pe ripheral edgethereof and around said stretchable member to confine the latter withinthe said stitching without interfering with the capacity of saidstretchable member to move slightly relatively to the body portion, thematerial of the body portion adjacent the stretchable member being inalignment with and disposed as an extension of a radius of thestretchable member.

2. An ironing board cover as defined by claim 1 wherein means isprovided for clamping the ends of the stretchable member to each otherand to the adjacent part of the textile body portion.

3. An ironing board cover as defined by claim 1 wherein means isprovided for clamping the ends of the stretchable member in alignedposition to each other and to the adjacent part of the textile bodyportion.

4. An ironing board cover as defined by claim 1 Whereinmeans is providedfor clamping the ends of the stretchable member in overlapping relationto each other and to the adjacent part of the textile body portion.

CHARLES RUTIENBERG.

